UTA Board Approves Nearly $2 Million in Employee Bonuses

The board that oversees the Utah Transit Authority decided on Wednesday how much money will go into next year’s employee pay-for-performance program. While more UTA employees will get bonuses next year, individual payouts will likely be smaller.

The agency will divide more than $1.9 million dollars between eligible employees in 2015, compared to last year’s $1.74 million dollars. UTA Spokesman Remi Barron says the 2013 was successful for UTA and its employees.

“We started the Provo South FrontRunner line in December 2012,” Barron says. “And then three rail lines this past year, as well as coming in almost $7 million under budget. So a lot of people met their goals, succeeded and received bonuses.”

Barron noted the board recently revised UTA’s policy to add several hundred more employees to the incentive program. That’s why he says the board set aside more money for the program this year than last, even though the agency only met 73 percent of its goals this year.

“Next year’s payout of incentive pay won’t be quite what it was this year because 100 percent of the goals were not achieved like they were last year,” Barron says.

Over the past year, UTA came up short in its goals of improving ridership by 4 percent and maintaining the tax subsidy per ride below a certain level.

The agency will decide how much money individual employees will receive later this year.